Hope everyone had an excellent Valentine's Day! Sous and I upheld our tradition of staying in and cooking an epic & romantic dinner together. Last year's braised short ribs were fabulous, but we definitely topped ourselves this year.
On the menu: caprese salad, prosciutto & italian cheese pinwheels, chicken with mushroom & gorgonzola cream sauce, and spaghetti carbonara. For dessert: chocolate molten lava cakes. For wine: Cigar Box Malbec and Ravenswood Red Zinfandel.
The salad & the pinwheels-
Easy & delish! The perfect antipasto. Salad- slice up the tomatoes, slice up the fresh mozz, sprinkle with basil, drizzle with olive oil & balsamic vinegar. Pinwheels- wrap thin-sliced prosciutto around your favorite italian cheese, then slice & serve.
The pasta-
Cook 1 lb of your favorite pasta per the box. We went with straight up spaghetti, which is my fave for carbonara dishes. Perfect texture & consistency. Drain the pasta, reserve 1/2c of the cooking water. In a small bowl, whisk 2 lg egg yolks, 1/2c of whipping cream, and 1 tsp of paprika. Heat a tbsp of oil in a skillet, and cook 4oz of diced prosciutto or pancetta on medium-high for 5 min. Add 2 minced garlic cloves and cook for 1 min. Add the spaghetti to the skillet, and reduce heat to low, tossing the spaghetti to coat. Add the reserved water and the yolk mix. Coat the pasta and cook for 2 min. Add 1c of parmesan cheese and a pinch of nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper. Serve topped with some additional parm.
The chicken-
This was basically a chicken marsala with a twist. Add 2 tbsp olive oil to a skillet and heat on medium-high. Dredge four thin-sliced boneless skinless chicken breasts in flour, shaking off the excess. Add them to the skillet and season with salt, pepper, italian seasoning, white pepper, marjoram, poultry seasoning, and crushed red pepper. You just need a little of each- this is my house italian seasoning blend. Add 1/2c chicken broth and 1/2c of marsala or sherry wine, and saute the chicken for 5 min on each side. Remove the chicken & keep warm. Reserve the sauce. Add some additional olive oil to the same skillet and cook 1/2lb of sliced mushrooms for 6 min. I used baby bellas, love them! Add 2 minced garlic cloves and cook for 1 min. Add 1c of marsala wine and cook about 5 min, until the liquid is reduced by a third. Stir in 2/3c of whipping cream, and season with salt & pepper. You don't need a lot of seasoning in the sauce since you're about to add... POW! 1/3c of crumbled gorgonzola. Return the chicken to the pan along with the gorgonzola and simmer about 5 minutes until the sauce thickens. Serve the chicken with the gorgonzola mushroom sauce, and drizzle some of the reserved sauce from cooking the chicken over it. The chicken sauce will be a little darker and it provides a nice contrast. Sprinkle with some additional crumbled gorgonzola.
The wine-
The store was all out of Barefoot Red Moscato :( These two wines were excellent though, and both were under $10. I've had the Red Zin countless times, but the Cigar Box Malbec was a new one and will be going on our favorites list.
The dessert-
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cakes-raspberries.aspxFollowed the recipe to the letter except I forgot tawny port at the packie so I used riesling instead, which is a perfectly acceptable substitute. This dessert was amazing!
If you're thinking ahead to next Valentine's Day, or planning a nice romantic anytime dinner at home, we hope you try out some of these recipes and be sure to let us know what you think!
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